Joint Statement by CRC, OHCHR, UNICEF and UNFPA on reforms to the Juvenile Penal Law and Penitentiary Law in El Salvador

Statement attributable to: 

Ms. Anne Skelton, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child 

Ms. Karin Hulshof, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean

Mr.  Andrés Sánchez Thorin, OHCHR Regional Representative for Central America and Dominican Republic

Ms. Susana Sotolli, UNFPA’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean

Panama City, 13 February 2025 – The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) express their concern about the reforms to the Juvenile Penal Law and the Penitentiary Law in El Salvador.

These reforms allow adolescents deprived of liberty for crimes committed under organized crime to serve their provisional detention or prison sentence in adult penitentiary centres administered by the General Directorate of Penal Centers. While the decree states that adolescents would be placed in separate units, the administration of the centers would be transferred to an entity that lacks specialization in childhood and adolescence, and the measures would be carried out in facilities originally designed for adults.

The reforms contradict the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)¹, as well as other international instruments², regarding the treatment and conditions that must be observed for the deprivation of liberty of adolescents, including preventive detention and imprisonment after sentencing.

These instruments state that the imprisonment of a child should only be used as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and that any child deprived of liberty should be separated from adults and confined in separate facilities. In El Salvador, the Growing Together Law for the Comprehensive Protection of Early Childhood, Children, and Adolescents also reaffirms these principles.

The proposed reforms represent a significant setback in relation to El Salvador's commitments to establishing a juvenile justice system with a differentiated, individualized, and specialized approach, applicable to all adolescents accused of crimes, regardless of their severity or context.

There is abundant evidence that placing them in an adult centre or prison endangers their basic safety, health, especially their psychological and emotional development, as well as their ability to remain free of crime in the future and to reintegrate positively into society.

CRC, UNICEF, OHCHR and UNFPA offer El Salvador their technical support for the joint search for solutions that promote respect for the rights of adolescents in conflict with the law, aiming for their full reintegration into society in accordance with international standards.

_{[1] Article 37 c which should be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of general comment 24 (2019) on the rights of the child in the juvenile justice system - CRC/C/GC/24
[2] United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules). United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty Adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 45/113 of 14 December 1990, relating to the administration of juvenile institutions (section IV)}